Recently Comstock’s Magazine, Sacramento’s most prominent business publication, asked me about dangers to look out for when planning your estate. I shared my thoughts on how to avoid potential future estate and trust litigation with Comstock’s writer Jennifer Fergesen. Here are the top five points I discussed: Misunderstanding Estate Laws and Terminology: Knowing the basics of what differentiates, say, a will from a trust, or how to keep an estate out of probate will help you save time and money. Getting the Wrong Advice: Experience and credibility matter, so treat finding the right lawyer or financial advisor you’d be looking for the right doctor to manage your health. Ask questions, do some research, and don’t be afraid to [...]

Late November mornings in Northern California are turning cold. It’s near Thanksgiving. It’s a time that stirs memories. As I got up this morning, I thought, “it is really cold.” And, soon thereafter a song started playing in my head. Psychology Today calls these earworms. They’re the song version of “Groundhog Day.” And the song snippet that came uninvited to my mind was … The Rolling Stones “She’s So Cold.” OK, I thought – lets have some fun with this. So, I’m going to use a few song snippets to describe some trust cases where the prime wrongdoer was really cold. This is not a pass for men who do similar acts. It’s just that the Rolling Stones songs says: “she’s so cold” – not “he’s so cold.�[...]

While there are a variety of grounds and reasons for contesting a will in California probate courts, there is an important precondition to a court challenge: standing to sue. In essence, you must have a property right affected by the will – in the words of the law – you must be an “interested person.” California Probate Code Section 48 defines an “interested person” as an “heir, devisee, child, spouse, creditor, beneficiary, and any other person having a property right in or claim against a trust estate or the estate of a decedent which may be affected by the proceeding.” In the words of well-known trust and estate litigation Super Lawyer, Denise Chambliss, “it is black letter law that beneficiaries of an earlier will, [...]

Despite rumors and numerous alleged sightings, Elvis Presley, the King of Rock N Roll, died in 1977. At the time of his death, Elvis’ only daughter, Lisa Marie, was only 9 years old, but she became the heir to his estate, worth in 1977 a relatively modest $5 million. It would have been much more but for Elvis’ penchant for bad business deals and a life of excess. According to Elvis’ will, Lisa Marie’s inheritance was kept in a Trust, known as the Promenade Trust, which through his ex-wife Priscilla’s stewardship grew to an estimated $100+ million when Lisa Marie gained control. In the ensuing 12 years, the Promenade Trust owned Graceland as well as the royalty stream of Elvis Presley Enterprises. By then, Lisa Marie had been ma[...]

California’s median home value in September 2019 is $548,000. Bay Area median home values are even higher. As an example: Fremont - $1,176,000; Newark - $872,000; Santa Clara - $1,396,000; San Mateo - $1,513,000; San Francisco - $1,421,100; Redwood City - $2,688,000. We have litigated trust beneficiary disputes over homes located in every one of the referenced cities. Experience teaches us that trust disputes involving the rights of beneficiaries and heirs to Bay Area homes are common and hard-fought. There is a lot at stake. Homes are a target for those intent on estate undue influence and fraud. And, wronged and abused beneficiaries are not likely to walk away from the huge losses occasioned by fraud or undue influence. [...]

Atherton, our nation’s most expensive ZIP code, is in the heart of the California Bay Area. Atherton’s median price for a single-family home in the first half of 2019 was $8.1 million. Real estate agents and brokers who handle these sales have plenty of reason to celebrate when an escrow closes. While Atherton house values are setting records the rest of the Bay Area housing market also have significant values. Median home prices for June, 2019 were $1,549,000 (San Mateo), $1,250,000 (Santa Clara), $926,000 (Alameda), and $665,000 (Contra Costa). When it comes to estate and trust transfers these high house values have significant repercussions. California homeowners are getting older and wealthier as the value of their homes has increa[...]

Hello, I’m Mike Hackard. I am a California estate and trust litigation lawyer. I began the practice of law in 1976, and I’ve been very active to this day. I want to discuss how assets pass on after we pass on. We begin by recognizing how different is the part played by our probate courts from that of automatic transfers on death. We can see these differences by telling some stories. We in the United States have the gift of owning property. We have certain property rights and responsibilities associated with the ownership. For example, if we own a home, we have the responsibility of paying property taxes. We may also have responsibilities to homeowners associations. We own our cars and we also have the responsibility to license them. [...]

We handle substantial trust, estate, probate and elder financial abuse litigation cases in California’s largest cities and counties. Frequent venues include Sacramento, Los Angeles and the major Bay Area Counties in between – including San Mateo, Santa Clara, Alameda and Contra Costa Counties. While every case is different, there are often some common acts of fraud in trust, estate or probate litigation. I’ll talk about some of my own observations of these common acts of fraud in trust and probate disputes. Let’s start with the difference between actual and constructive fraud. California law defines actual fraud as consisting “in any of the following acts, committed by a party to the contract, or with his connivance, with intent[...]

Tom Petty was an American original, a singer, a songwriter, an actor, and an instrumentalist who formed the iconic group Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in 1976. By the time of his death in 2017 at age 66 from of an accidental drug overdose, his music catalog was worth in the tens of millions. Like many estates of successful rock ‘n roll musicians, Petty left behind an extended family: children from a first marriage, two daughters named Adria and Annakim, and a widowed stepmother named Dana. My recent book, Alzheimer’s, Widowed Stepmothers & Estate Crimes, highlights some of the persistent issues between children of first marriages and widowed stepmothers. Even in best case scenarios, widowed stepmothers and their stepchild[...]

Determining actual ownership of bank accounts after the death of a loved one can be challenging. There can be real differences in what the parties to the accounts, the beneficiaries of a trust, and the heirs of an estate believe and what they want. It is difficult at times to find a blueprint in which to operate. A 2017 California Court of Appeal decision (Higgins v. Higgins) helps to identify some basic guideposts for ownership determination. The case arose from a lawsuit brought by the personal representative of an estate against a wife who agreed to hold funds in trust for her husband’s stepmother. After her husband’s death she changed the form of the accounts and used the funds for her own purposes. The Appellate Court concluded [...]